Best of Artemis, week ending 20th March 2016

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 20th March 2016, covering catastrophe bonds, ILS, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics. To ensure you never miss a thing subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 20th March 2016:

1. Swiss Re ready to disrupt the risk to reinsurance capital value-chain
   Global reinsurance player Swiss Re has released its own measure of earnings performance today, reporting lower Economic Value Management (EVM) income and profit in 2015. But, perhaps more interestingly, the firm also noted its willingness to disrupt and bypass traditional channels to access risk.

2. Aus-NZ insurer Youi seeks collateralized reinsurance note renewal
   Australia and New Zealand focused insurance firm Youi is back looking to access the ILS capacity with its second syndicated collateralized reinsurance note issuance, according to market sources, as it seeks to cement the use of capital markets cover within its reinsurance tower.

3. $6bn of secondary trading in 2015 shows cat bond liquidity: Emmerson
   An estimated $6 billion of catastrophe bonds were traded in the secondary market in 2015, underlining increased liquidity in the sector as investors become more and more comfortable with the asset class, according to Steve Emmerson of Tullett Prebon.

4. El Niño in decline but impacting global weather, ~50% chance of La Niña
   The current near-record El Niño event appears on the wane, with conditions attributed to the phenomenon said to be in decline, but its effects set to be felt for some time to come, with insurance and reinsurance firms now turning their heads to the possible development of La Niña conditions.

5. Run-off ILS P&C Fund acquires Rampart from Groupama
   The property & casualty run-off focused insurance-linked investment fund operated by the Credit Suisse  insurance-linked strategies team and sub-advisor ILS Investment Management (ILSIM), has completed the acquisition of Rampart Insurance Company from Groupama SA.

6. ILS capital getting closer to primary insurance risk: Butler, Twelve Capital
   The innovation and evolution of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) space has seen its capacity get ever closer to primary insurance risk, supported by access to more detailed data and improved risk selection, according to John Butler of Twelve Capital.

7. Reinsurers won’t be on systemically important (G-SII) list: Kessler & S&P
   Reinsurance companies won’t be designated as systemically important (G-SII) because they aren’t systemic, according to SCOR CEO Dennis Kessler, a view that is also held by rating agency Standard & Poor’s.

8. ILS complementary, but should move down the reinsurance tower: Demetre
   In recent times alternative, or third-party reinsurance capital growth has outpaced that of the traditional market, a trend underlined by cedants increasingly viewing it as a source of capacity that complements their traditional reinsurance coverage, and promotes innovation.

9. Risk analysis question is about more than just disclosure: Samir Shah
   This is a commentary by Samir Shah, ex-Head of Insurance Capital Markets at AIG, on our article titled ‘Disclosure of risk analysis in ILS offerings benefits investors: SIFMA speakers’, published March 11, 2016, in which he explains that the question should not be whether to disclose, but rather how to make disclosure efficient and reliable.

10. China regulator progressing cat bond & insurance securitisation rules
    China’s insurance and reinsurance sector regulator, the Chinese Insurance Regulatory Committee (CIRC), has elicited feedback from its market participants and global players on proposed legislation for catastrophe bonds and so-called insurance liability securitisation structures.

This is by no means every article published on Artemis during the last week, just the most popular, some of which were published over a week ago. There were 22 new articles published in the last week. To ensure you always stay up to date with Artemis and never miss a story subscribe to our weekly email newsletter which is delivered every Wednesday.

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Artemis’ Q4 2015 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – Outright market growth continues

We’ve now published our Q4 2015 catastrophe bond & ILS market report.

This report reviews the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the end of the fourth-quarter of 2015, looking at the $1.525 billion of new risk capital issued and the composition of the cat bond & ILS transactions completed during Q4 2015. The report also includes a review of the full year 2015 issuance and commentary from co-editor GC Securities.

Download your copy here.